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Free Food – a whole meal!

A couple of weeks ago I was on a cycling along winding Cornish lanes whilst on holiday – as you can imagine several times I had to get off and push my bike uphill and I noticed that along the side of the road were potatoes spilt from the large tractor trailers that were racing to bring finish the harvesting. So, I popped a handful into my panniers and if I could have free potatoes, why not a whole free food dinner!

Salad was easy – Sea Kale and a ‘wild’ cabbage was growing well along the seashore and there for the picking, as was lots of ‘second flush’ sorrel in all the hedges.

Later I walked along the cliff path and found blackberries and elderberries galore and also lots of gorse flowers which stewed together to make a lovely pudding (with the addition of a ‘borrowed’ sachet of sugar). There were also loads of hazel nuts and, although early, I picked some and lightly toasted them for the top of the salad.

I had hoped to pick some shell fish to go with it all, but (a) it was August (no R in the month) ,(b) I didn’t have any of my wild food books with me so not quite sure what to do with them and (c) I was staying in a Youth Hostel and therfore sharing a kitchen and thought that it might be a bit much for other users – although no doubt it would have been a great topic of converation – you can image can’t you … ‘What IS that woman cooking???” ! So I took the safe option and stopped at a farm shop for a Cornish lamb chop.